Hello everyone, its my first time here and I am also very green to this hobby that my son and I quickly got hooked into in the last couple of months so please bare with me if im not making sense when I talk about dcc.
We bought an intermountain ho es44dc that came equiped with dcc and tsunami sound ready to run out of the box. Great model no complaints but than again what do I know since I have nothing else to compare it with. I few days ago i bought a Kato ho sd70mac that says comes dcc ready so I got a esu loksound select decoder with the 8pin and put it in place. I am using a nce power cab in 28 bit step mode and find that the es44dc is a lot faster than my sd70mac . Im guessing that maybe I need a dcc decoder and not just a sound decoder like Ive thrown in there?? Im not sure why the kato is so slow even when maxed out compared to the intermountain es44dc. It even buzzes out loud at very low speeds. Is it my decoder? Im worried that I might burn out the motor this way. Would it be better if I had two decoders in there for the sd70? One for sound and one for dcc?? Or is the one esu loksound select enough to do both functions?? Ive been looking at the nce d13sr decoder and perhaps a mrc 1909 sound decoder to go with it. Would this be a more practical solution for better results. I am opened to suggestions or ideas about my issues. I also found a kato sd80mac that I will be adding soon so if anyone has suggestions for a dcc decoder for that one I would be grestful and deeply take it into consideration since you guys here have probably seen it all and done them all. Thank you all for the help and I hope it made sense.
You have two problems on your hands -- different brands of decoders with different motor control, and different brands of locomotives that are geared differently. Kato locomotives, especially, are geared for slow, very smooth running when compared to some other brands.
The LokSound Select decoder is all inclusive (motor, sound, and light control) and has the smoothest motor control of any decoder I have ever used, so I don't understand why yours is making a buzzing sound. I've never had that happen with LokSound, and use their decoders exclusively whenever possible.
Your only solution is to study up on speed matching the decoders and fine-tuning of the LokSound motor control. For that, you will need to go to each decoder's manufacturer web site and download their technical reference manuals.
For the Tsunami decoder: www.soundtraxx.com
For the LokSound Select: www.esu.eu/en/start/
Until you become much more experienced with DCC, just run the two locomotives separately and don't try to double-head them.
Where did you acquire the LokSound Select? From the factory, they have a very generic motor control and sound file loaded, and their default motor control circuitry may not be suitable for the Kato motor. If you didn't tell the vendor that you needed the decoder programmed for an SD70MAC so they could program it, you have just the most basic sound and motor control.
I have a LokProgrammer and could fine-tune the decoder for you if the vendor can't. PM me if you want to accept my offer.
Has the loco been run on straight DC first...the noise could be mechanical...though not usual with Kato.
There's nothing wrong with what you're doing. Even if you buy two identical engines with the same decoders in each (sound or non-sound) they're not going to run exactly the same speed. You need to do what's called "speed matching". In your case, your best bet is to slow the faster engine down so it matches the slower one. If you do a search in the forums on "speed matching" you'll find several threads already exist talking about how to do this. It's not that hard, often you can get them close with just adjusting a couple of CV (control value) settings - the ones for top speed and mid-range speed.
Thanks for the reply cacole. My loksound select was purchased from modeltrainstuff.com and the description on it said esu 73431 loksound select 6AUX with sd90/43mac-sd70mac emd 16-710gb sound. I just plugged in assuming it was already set up for a sd70mac. I will call mts to see if they can reprogram the chip. I also took off the shell last night and the 8 ohm speaker out thinking it was rattling from the speaker but its definately electrical humming. If you have some cv values that you thinkmay help please throw them my way and I can try punching them in to see if there is improvement. Thanks again
Jacktal Has the loco been run on straight DC first...the noise could be mechanical...though not usual with Kato.
No I never started out with dc and went straight to dcc. I opened it up last night and took out speaker and decoder that were taped up to the shell but humming at low speeds around steps 1-8 still noticeable. Perhaps I should put the factory jumpers back in and try it on dc. Thanks for the idea.
wjstix There's nothing wrong with what you're doing. Even if you buy two identical engines with the same decoders in each (sound or non-sound) they're not going to run exactly the same speed. You need to do what's called "speed matching". In your case, your best bet is to slow the faster engine down so it matches the slower one. If you do a search in the forums on "speed matching" you'll find several threads already exist talking about how to do this. It's not that hard, often you can get them close with just adjusting a couple of CV (control value) settings - the ones for top speed and mid-range speed.
Hi stix, I dont think I explained my situation well but im only running one loco at a time. Big difference in speed at same values. Im still learning and will probably do some more research. Speed matching will come soon after getting these kinks worked out. I just hope its not my unit. Thanks for all